Officer's Handbook

WARGAMES RULES FOR TACTICAL OPERATIONS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR USING 15MM MODEL TANKS AND INFANTRY

Current Editions:1.1 for the PDF version

1.0 for the Print on Demand versionCorrections, clarifications and new material are available to download at the Publisher's website. These are incorporated in the PDF version 1.1

Recommended scale 15mm

Complexity: 7/10

Level of detail: 9/10

Dice required: d10, d6

A SET OF QUICK REFERENCE SHEETS IS AVAILABLE THROUGH THE PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE

15 APRIL 2018: THERE IS ALSO A GAME WALK-THROUGH PDF FILE THAT IS NOW PART OF THE PDF DOWNLOAD PACKAGE FROM WARGAME VAULT. OWNERS OF THE PRINT ON DEMAND VERSION SHOULD GO TO THE PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE, WHERE IT CAN BE DOWNLOADED.

These rules provide players with all they require to fight land wargames set in the Second World War involving the major nations involved. We have included France, Germany, Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Italy, Japan, Poland, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. This decision was influenced by the availability both of models and of reliable source information to help create the game data. We wished to be able to depict the sometimes subtle differences between different national characteristics, particularly regarding Infantry organisation and equipment, and differences in both weapons and vehicles.

This book contains everything the Player needs to play the game. This means the rules, and the data tables. We decided not to include extensive organisation tables or scenarios. There is a wide range of material readily available which Players can use when putting their forces together.

Players should feel free to prepare their games using historical formations, for which we provide guidelines about Unit structures, or they can be completely ‘free form’ with Units put together as the players wish. You should not, however, mix both styles. Historically, armies did use some fairly ‘ad hoc’ formations such as German Kampfgruppen with various arms of service all mixed together in Units. It was also quite common in the Western Desert for both sides to make use of captured equipment, which would give your games an additional ‘exotic’ flavour.

The basic Units in the game are Platoons of Infantry or Tanks, and Batteries of Artillery. An Armoured Unit consists typically of 3-5 model vehicles; an Infantry Unit has 2, 3 or 4 Bases of Infantry, each representing a Squad; an Artillery Battery usually has 4 Guns, though there could be fewer or more depending on historical practice. It will normally have an Observer and, if it conducts an attack affecting an area, could be Off-table.

An Infantry or Cavalry Base represents a squad or troop, based on historic organisations. Some nations have fewer squads making up a platoon, though the individual squads may have larger numbers of men, giving them a better Saving Throw. We do not make use of lower level detail, such as who is actually holding any Special Weapons such as a PIAT or Bazooka.

There are a number of important features in this set of rules.

The Game Turn does not follow a strictly IGO-UGO method, though Initiative is determined in a traditional fashion.

Each Game Turn, the Players get a variable number of Orders which can be assigned to any of their troops. The number available is dependant on the number of Units in action and the effectiveness of their Commanders.

A Game Turn is split up into a number of Phases, which alternate between Players. In each Phase a Player can Activate one of his Units and carry out one or more Orders, depending entirely on what the Player wants to do. Each Order is regarded as an Action representing 1 to 3 minutes.

When a Player decides that he has taken all the Actions he wishes to with a Unit, play transfers to his opponent, who Activates one of his Units. This means that as the game develops, each Player must choose which enemy threat to react to, and which can be ignored. When a Player has run out of Orders, he can no longer Activate any Units. His opponent continues to use his Orders, and when he has used his last Order the Game Turn ends.

This system of alternating Unit Activation means that there are fewer Game Turns, but a large number of Activations and some Units may be able to make sweeping advances across the table (with all the attached risks).

Each Order expended is deemed to ‘Fatigue’ a Unit, making subsequent tasks more difficult. In some cases, Fatigue is in fact just that, physically tiring a Unit. In other cases, such as when firing Ranging Rounds for Artillery, which is not going to tire out the troops particularly, Fatigue represents the effect of time being taken to check on fall of shot, etc. Players must make a decision whether to expend a higher proportion of the available Orders on some Units, at the expense of others.

The ‘Fog of War’ is also present in the form of Contact Markers. These represent the uncertainty surrounding the location of the enemy. These allow the Commanders to keep the location some of their Units uncertain.

Hello, well written rules like all of the A&A products with updates on the homepage. Enjoy the detail on the units, exactly what I was looking for. Your "preparing for a game" rules are great and very helpful to play balance. The example units give a good idea on building a force, I am wondering how many units you think can play a game in an evening per side? A scenario would be helpful to get us started.
Regards,
Mark

Andrew FMarch 23, 2018 9:14 am UTC

PUBLISHER

Hello Mark
Thank you for the positive remarks, it makes it all worth while.
We play games usually with around 3000 points, and that gives a game that will go for around 3 hours (less if the dice conspire against you!). That would give you around 12 units per side for average sized units with a one or two Officers and an observer. You can "save money" by putting artillery off table. Of course some equipment (especially nasty late war German stuff) can be a bit expensive to field; however there is usually a counter to even the toughest equipment. Even in the early war, playing British vs Italians in the desert (which will be illustrated soon in a walk through battle on our website), Matilda's are unstoppable unless they get caught by Italian artillery firing Hollow Charge rounds direct, or if they get close assaulted by Infantry; that is just one example.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch.

Geoff CAugust 09, 2017 8:07 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Well written, clear and understandable. Will try them out with my 10mm North Afrika forces. Would bebefir frim some examples throughout or perhaps in an appendix and/or even better a U Tube video working through the rules sections. A big ask Iknow, but if you look at say the Mini Wargames 40k rules guide videos picking up rules fron watching people play is easier than going through them tourself and the video promotes the rule set.....just a thought.......

Andrew FAugust 13, 2017 8:28 am UTC

PUBLISHER

Thank You Geoff for your comments. We concur that some worked through examples would be useful, and we shall take steps to create some of these, which we will put on our own website. I think that these would take the form of handling specific parts of the rules, with a walk through showing what is happening step by step, illustrated with photos.
We appreciate all comments and suggestions.

Andrew FApril 03, 2018 3:55 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

Hi Geoff
I thought that I would just let you know that we have finally got around to doing a walk through report of a real battle. This will be ready in the next week or so. I will add it to the product files so that it should, I think, be deposited into your library automatically.
Whatever happens, I will send a mailing via their server to all the purchasers who have registered for that support.
Regards

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